A Hull of a lot of heavy lifting
PD Ports (PDP) in the UK has been highly commended for its recent handling of a specialist project cargo, which sailed into Hull Container Terminal (HCT) on the ‘ Beluga Federation’ vessel last month.
PDP was awarded the contract by international freight forwarders, Transcar Projects Ltd, to handle the project cargo, despite strong competition from other port operations on the Humber.
The cargo was intended for the BP power station at Saltend, where it will form part of the station’s cooling system. The location of the container terminal and close proximity to the power station all complemented PDP’s winning service offering.
The discharge of the Beluga Federation, which carried the project cargo from Kandla, India, took three days and involved the handling of four heavy lifts, two weighing in at 135 tons each and two at 94 tons each. A further 73 cargo lifts of up to 37 tons each were also unloaded.
The successful discharge of the Beluga Federation called upon the resources of the wider PD Ports Group. Using the skills and disciplines of HCT and Middlesbrough based staff ensured that the whole operation went without incident or disruption to any of the terminal’s other operations.
Transcar commended PDP on the smooth handling of the whole project and was very impressed by the attitude of the PD Ports team. Transcar operations manager, Di Kenny said, ‘I am very encouraged to work with such a professional team and impressed by their flexible approach to ever changing demands as well as their ability to handle such specialised cargo efficiently and safely.’
PD Ports has operated HCT since 1990. Last year PDP entered a new agreement to operate HCT for up to a further eight years. This will include over its lifetime some £4 million additional investment by PD Ports to improve the overall efficiency of the facility.
